We had a huge birch tree in our front yard that was perfect for climbing. I used to love climbing as high as I could and looking out over the houses and yards all laid out below. In my minds eye, I could see half the neighbourhood, but I’m sure if I went back there and climbed that tree now I would only see my own house and maybe a couple of others. I’m also sure that if I tried to climb that tree now I’d fall and break my neck.
It was the outdoor stuff. The woods, the creek, and the bridges that crossed it, the small farm across the street, the paths we walked to and from school (always in the snow, uphill both ways). The woods would shrink over time as new developments were built. One day the creek ran dry and was never more than a trickle after that. But as a small child that was my world.
The chair in the living room right next to the register. Exactly which chair that was varied, but whichever chair was there, every creature that ever lived in the house favored it.
The mulberry tree over the driveway. It made a mess of the driveway and of the car, of course (fortunately I enjoyed washing the car, as a kid), and if I ever get a mulberry tree it’ll be off in some corner of the yard, but it was much larger than most mulberry trees, and an excellent climbing tree. I could spend all afternoon in that tree, and come back in with my mouth and hands stained purple.
The upstairs back porch, off of the upstairs sunroom.
And not at my childhood house, but at Gramma’s house, two of the bedrooms were connected by a secret passage in the closets. Of course, it wasn’t all that secret since everyone knew about it (I think it was my uncle who first showed it to us), but that didn’t matter: It was a secret passage.
When I was 9, my best friend had a big mulberry tree in his yard, and we spent many summer afternoons climbing its branches, collecting the berries. Good times.
As a kid in DeLand, Florida we had a lake in the backyard I could pull my swingset and slide over to. We were surrounded by orange, tangerine and grapefruit orchards as well as having a number of fruit trees in the yard and every morning Dad and I used to walk around the house picking our breakfast off the trees.
For some reason I was fascinated by holes and we had a part of the yard where I could dig until my heart’s content. Mom also would take us to construction sites where we’d ask for building scraps. I’d bring them home and make wonderful forts and tree houses.
At grandmom’s house there was an attic that smelled of cedar and was full of wonderful old magazines and things and was a great place to hide. At the other grandparents was this fantastic old warehouse shed where grandad had tons of things stored from his days in sales; 48 star flags, fence electrifiers, giant fans, maps, baby cribs and infant feeding tables, neon light displays, old signs, shelf after shelf of cool old stuff, all guarded by a large pack of [del]mountain lions[/del] feral cats.
I had three childhood homes and the best part of all of them was the backyard:
Home #1 (briefly rented): There was a row of trees against the back fence and I loved to army-crawl in the small, tunnel-like space between (knee and arm scratches be damned!).
Home #2 (briefly rented): The backyard had a large and plentiful white grapefruit tree and my siblings and I would gorge ourselves on the fruit during the summer. Until I discovered I was allergic 
Home #3 (main childhood home): We had a large backyard with a pool with a slide, rock fountain (now dried up), and lots of space for us kids and our dog to play! There were also a few trees that gave us access to the roof, much to my father’s dismay.
The bathroom with the heated tub and a picture window. The builder had run the hot water pipe right under the bathtub, to get to the shower. The same bathtub that had a picture window overlooking woods. So on cold winter mornings, it was common to walk into the bathroom to find someone brushing their teeth while standing in the bathtub, looking out the window.
Huge screen porch - I think it was 18’x18’. The house didn’t have AC, and in the summer when it evening finally got there, the screen porch would cool off long before the house. We moved the TV out there and pretty much lived in that room in the summer.
Huge eaves - You could leave the windows open all summer, and unless there was a hurricane (rather rare in Minnesota), there was no worry about getting rain coming in through the windows.
Until I was 11, we lived in a split-level ranch on a big, man-made hill. The gentle slope in the backyard made for great sledding and the steep slope in front allowed the plows to really pile up the snow for us to dig in. One year, we made tunnels from the road almost all the way to the front door!
The upstairs bathrooms shared a common wall, which was translucent around the mirrors. When both bathrooms were occupied, it was common to play games by putting one’s hand on the translucent wall. The upstairs bathrooms also had laundry chutes built into the counters. I don’t remember sliding down into the pile of laundry at the bottom but my siblings did.
The bedrooms were over the garage and Dad was been quite the handyman in his younger days. If he was in there working on something and a kid was in the a bedroom, the kid could knock on the floor and Dad would knock back on the ceiling.
The basement was unfinished with a concrete floor that was very slick when wet. This led to games of hockey with brooms as sticks and a scrub brush as the puck.
The kitchen counter had lazy Susans in both corners and were perfect fits for us kids when we were young. There were lots of chalk marks in there when we moved out.
As it happens, one of my childhood homes is for sale right now. One of my sisters is seriously thinking about buying it. Some of the things I liked best about that house - 3rd story nursery/playroom where we could be as messy as we liked. Huge two-story carriage house with the whole property being 1/2 a city block. Big bay windows with window seats, perfect to curl up on and read. Radiators you could put your towel over, so when you get out of the shower it’s all toasty warm. Beautiful stained and leaded glass windows. It was a great house to grow up in.
StG
The woods. Fun in the summer. Fun in the winter. We had a fort, a pond, a creek, and big rocks back in there. At some point they were supposed to tear it all down and build houses, but the money ran out.
My family has lived in the same house for all 20 years of my life. Things I love:
-hardwood floors on the top two floors. There’s nothing like the feeling of running around on the hardwood with no socks on the first warm day of the year.
-One wall of the kitchen is cut out so you can sit at the kitchen counter and look into the sitting room. Of course this might not be good if you want to convince your family not to watch TV while eating…
-A big playroom in the basement with carpeted floors so we could roll around and play. The most comfortable furniture in the world is down there too.
-Books everywhere. My friends have asked me whether I was in a library when I was talking to them on webcam. My mom collected antique books in the 80s and so parts of the house smell like a friendly old bookshop.
-A ‘secret’ attic accessible via trapdoor in one of the bedrooms. Always dreamed of having the attic finished.
-A huge backyard with lots of trees and rocks and a swingset. There were endless hiding places in the bushes in the terraces along the hill. I liked digging in the ground for treasure. There was enough quartz and broken glass to satisfy my wish for shiny things.
-A front yard full of grass, perfect for running through the sprinkler on a hot summer day or chasing fireflies at night.
Things I was fascinated by at other people’s homes:
-A balcony that served as a hallway for the upper level and overhung the living room.
-A tiny room under the stairs
-Secret doors in the back of closets
-A red glass kitchen lamp that bathed the room in red light
-Porch swing
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A tree house in the back yard. It was a platform about 8 ft x 8 ft at 6 ft high, built by my dad with our assistance (which wasn’t much because we were all under 12). It was anchored to an oak tree as one support, and had three posts made from tree trunks for the other corners. It had a rail, so it was safe, and made for a two story play center - the top deck and the space underneath. There was a cross member support diagonal up one side that could be climbed up, and a homemade ladder for the front. The ladder was broken after a while, but the bar at the back left sufficient access that it wasn’t a problem. At 6 ft, we could jump out of the treehouse relatively safely.
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Bushes along the back of the yard, butting up against a utility accessway. The bushes were dense and overgrown, with a couple openings to the accessway. It simultaneously made a visual wall for the back yard, and made a place to cut lots of paths and nooks to play around in. Grown up with honeysuckle.
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We had a built-in fire pit made of brick, complete with a chimney, standing about 6 ft high, on a large concrete patio slab. When I was real little, I actually climbed up through the chimney like a submarine hatch, but when got too big for that, I climbed on the outside, just so I could stand on top of it and look around the yard. There was a slope on the backside, so I was about 10 ft off the ground, and it was high and impressive. I even jumped off the thing a couple times in my crazy kid days.
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Neighbor down the street had an interesting yard with 2 features: a tree and a ring of hedges. The ring of hedges made a horseshoe shape, and she didn’t care if the neighborhood kids ran around in her yard, so we played there a lot. The tree was a large 200ft tall oak, and we finagled a way to get up to the first branck and climb the tree, which I did a couple times, before giving it up.
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Set of great uncle/aunt had a rock wall that I wanted to climb on. Only visited there a couple places, and managed to crawl up a bit. Would have loved that as a regular feature.
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Closet in the back bedroom was larger than the rest, had shelves in the back and a large top shelf. We figured out we could use the clothes hanger bar and climb up the shelves to get access to things ourselves. Also tried making a cubby hole to hide in the back of the closet.
Pretty much anyplace to climb up high and look around and feel superior. Even though I have a fear of heights, which now manifests as actual vertigo (dizzy, woozy, full on). A few times as a kid I did manage to climb up things I didn’t want to climb back down, but I still kinda like climbing. I still want to climb trees and things, but the scrapes and scratches are less appealing, and the silliness of being seen in a tree is embarrassing, and the height issues are more pronounced.
Kids seem to like places to climb, places to run around, and places to hide. Pretty much any kind of hidden passage or crawlspace or secluded closet, any kind of place to hide things or self, any “special” features.
- When I got older, and could ride my bike farther from home unsupervised, there was a patch of woods between the neighborhood and a cemetary, and a creek and such. Liked to walk around down there. Took my dog down there a few times.
It was a big old house, with lots of hiding places. The living room was very long and elegant. There was a shady, flagstone-paved, screened-in porch that was very cool and comfortable in the summertime. A big yard to run around in, and two especially good climbing trees. A vacant lot behind it and down the hill, which was good for all kinds of games. We lived in that house until my sisters and I went to college, and my parents sold it and moved into a smaller place. I still drive by it now and then and like to see it, reliving all kinds of great memories when I do.
We had a large landing at the top of the stairs with a window and deep-set window seat that was perfect for reading and looking out over the front yard.
We also had one of those secret passages others have mentioned. Ours was between the closets between my room and my sister’s room. Our closets backed up to each other, and there was a small rectangular room between them. It was about 4 feet deep, and maybe 2 feet wide, but, hey… secret room!
We also had a large mulberry tree in the back yard. My parents hated it, but it was an excellent climbing tree. I cried when they cut it down when I was in high school.
We had real plaster walls and ceilings that included a dropped border at the ceiling - I used to hang upside down off the couch and imagine myself walking around on the ceiling. I think that the detail / 3-dimensionality stoked my imagination.
The shuffleboard in the basement, and the huuuuge back yard. Well, it was at least a few acres. Big enough for me to dig a few wholes about 5x10x5 and make my own personal mudpool! Ah, good times.
The big red chair that I would sleep in when I had asthma attacks and the rumpus room in the basement - that’s where the toy box was.
The apple tree in the backyard that I’d climb and sit on a limb for a while as I munched on sweet green apples.
The garage and all the mysterious items it held. I’d marvel at the various tools and other accoutrements I could not understand but my father seem to use so effortlessly.
The oil fired floor furnace in the hallway that was our only source of heat. It was covered by a 2’X4’ metal grate and on cold mornings I’d fold and place a towel on the grates and lie on it for added warmth.
The attic. I was never allowed up there and could only peer into the darkness through a ceiling access opening making it even more mysterious and much more frightening than the garage.
The bedroom I had from ages 12 to 18 is 25m[sup]2[/sup], with a view of the local vega and beyond that a desert reminiscent of the American SW (las Bardenas). I loved being able to watch both the sunrise and sunset (depending on time of year) from the bed.
The size, airiness and views were specially welcome due to having spent the previous 5 years using a bedroom so small I had to twist the bed out of place in order to open the wardrobe’s second door, with the window’s rolling blinds always down because it gave out into a tiny “blind patio” which had roaches and rats in it. Those blinds only went up when the town’s Pest Control came by, and having them up didn’t bring any light into the room anyway.
These have all been great to read. I would love to have had the “secret rooms” some posts described. It seems that a "secret place"can’t be made, but has to be discovered. I planned to give my son a strongbox with a key to hide his private stuff in , once he was old enough not to lose the key. But it seems a self -discovered hole or gap behind a dresser or a loose floor board feels more “my own”.
And I am SO making a treehouse when my son gets older.
It is funny that rooms full of junk are like treasuries for kids. As an adult, I hate useless rooms filled with clutter, and I kind of assumed my kid would, too.
I guess that as a compromise, I can take him to the Goodwill stores once or twice a month and let him get whatever takes his fancy there. I already do that, and it is surprising what a kid picks out there.